THE ROLE OF EVENT ATTENDEES’ KNOWLEDGE, ENTHUSIASMS, AND ACTIVENESS ON COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Abstract

Today, events are central to our culture as perhaps never before. Increases in leisure time and
discretionary spending have led to a proliferation of public events, celebrations and
entertainment. The event marketing manager must then examine the objectives of these major
players – what each of them expects to gain from the event, and what forces acting on them are
likely to affect their response to the event. This study to examine the relationships among event
attendees' knowledge of an event sponsor's products and activeness and enthusiasm related to the
area of the event for a sponsor’s community involvement. This approach assumes that marketers,
by adopting a consumer focus, respond only to the expressed needs of event visitors. In reality,
sound marketing research can unveil the latent needs of consumers that only innovative events
can satisfy. Event marketing is defined as the "practice of promoting the interests of an
organization and its brands by associating the organization with a specific activity" (Shimp,
1993; Van Heerden, 2001). Data with 200 respondents are analyzed with multiple linier
regressions, and hypotheses are also tested for significant influences. The result shows that event
attendees' knowledge of the sponsor, enthusiasm, and activeness positively influence their desire
that a sponsor be involved with the community, which can make the event special, and contribute
to its imagery and branding.

Saat ini event menjadi tema sentral dalam budaya manusia. Peningkatan waktu luang dan
pengeluaran telah mendorong munculnya berbagai macam event publik, perayaan dan hiburan.
Manajer event marketing harus mempelajari tujuan dari berbagai macam pemeran dalam
perayaan tersebut, apa yang diharapkan dari suatu peristiwa serta hal apa yang mendorong
konsumen menyukai suatu event. Penelitian ini memeriksa hubungan antara pengetahuan peserta
event akan event yang didanai produk sponsor, dan tingkat keaktifan serta antusiasme terkait
dengan keterlibatan komunitas tertentu. Pendekatan ini memiliki asumsi bahwa pemasar aka
merespon kebutuhan yang tampak dari pengunjung event. Dalam kenyataan, dengan riset
pemasaran yang kuat maka dapat ditemukan kebutuhan tersembunyi dari konsumen. Event
marketing didefinisikan sebagai kegiatan praktik promosi kepentingan organisasi dan merek
dikaitkan dengan event/peristiwa tertentu (Shimp, 1993; Van Heerden, 2001). Data diperoleh
dari 200 responden dan diolah dengan regresi linear. Hasil penelitian menunjukan pengetahuan
pengunjung akan sponsor, antusiasme, dan tingkat keaktifan berpengaruh positif terhadap
keinginan agar sponsor terlibat dengan komunitas tertentu, sehingga event dapat menjadi lebih
menarik dan berpengaruh pada branding dan citra merek.